Student Handouts
Logical Fallacies
Help your learners grow their critical thinking and analytical skills by asking them to examine logical fallacies. After reading an example, pupils determine if two sets of premises and conclusions are logical fallacies or not and...
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Language Arts: Persuasion
Students examine the characteristics of persuasive writing. They identify arguments, supporting details, and discuss how to reorganize and present information in more effective ways. Students compose their own essays and discuss their...
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A History of Conflict Resolution and the Jury System
Young scholars study the history of the jury system in the United States. They enact a number of different types of trials including trial by jury. They complete a worksheet that compares the trials systems before writing a persuasive...
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Plants for Pleasure and Profit
Young scholars study about some of the specimens collected or diagrammed by Lewis and Clark, discuss their usefulness, and rank their importance. They write a persuasive essay detailing the plants they thought the most important.
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Persuasive Text: Vocabulary Charades
Students play charades to act out vocabulary words that have recently been introduced in class. In this vocabulary lesson students may work in groups or in pairs.
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Breaking Barriers
Determine how African-Americans have broken barriers in this history instructional activity. Middle schoolers discuss the 15th Amendment and the American civil rights movement prior to analyzing Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect...
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Author's Day
Have your learners choose an author to study. One resource link gives a list of approved authors. Scholars read at least three works produced by that author and produce three separate book reports as well as a two-page author report....
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Global Warming and Climate Change
Students explore the environment by writing a persuasive letter. In this global warming lesson plan, students identify the key problems with our energy consumption in the United States. Students complete worksheets and write a letter...
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Not So Sweet
Students explore farming, slavery and cacoa farming. In this agricultural science lesson plan, students fill out KWL charts, create PowerPoints and do internet research. Students write letters to chocolate companies requesting them not...
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Making School a Better Place.
Students study the problems in their school and work on solutions for those problems. In this writing process lesson plan, students analyze a problem and work as a team to find a solution. Students present written and oral work to...
Museum of Tolerance
Oral History Activity
Oral history has brought a multitude of lessons, stories, and factoids to our current knowledge of the past. Let us continue to use oral history traditions through a activity that encourages pupils to discover and appreciate where they...
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I Don't Pay Attention to Advertisements
Sixth graders examine the eight persuasive techniques, identifying them in all avenues of media including magazine, TV, Internet, and billboards, and making them aware of how advertising already influences them. They write an essay using...
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Dispute Over Slavery in Kansas Territory
Students analyze primary sources on slavery from Kansas Territory. For this Civil War lesson, students evaluate the antislavery and pro-slavery arguments and summarize key points. Students write a persuasive paper from the antislavery...
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Exploration Across Eras
Learners discover the chronology of events related to the Corps of Discovery and the United States space program of the 1960s. They compare the Corps of Discovery's journey with the space exploration program.
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Jim Thorpe: The Greatest Athlete of the Century
Students discuss what makes a sports legend. In this Jim Thorpe activity students analyze both the triumphs and tragedies of Jim Thorpe's sports career. Students then write a letter persuading their representative to name Jim Thorpe the...
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The City Life or the country Life: conventions: Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adjectives and Adverbs
Reinforce knowledge of adjectives and adverbs by game playing. To better understand English conventions young writers, use flashcards to identify the base word and its comparative or superlative form.
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Wildcat Dumping Site
Students research facts about illegal dumping sites and write an editorial exposing the effects of the site from their point of view and persuades readers to take action. Students brainstorm ideas that could be included in the editorial,...
EngageNY
Interpreting and Connecting Information: Creating a Cascading Consequence Chart Using Frightful’s Mountain
Decisions, decisions. Scholars take a close look at making decisions by discussing the character Sam in chapters one through eight of Frightful’s Mountain. Partners discuss whether Sam should interact with Frightful and then complete a...
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Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
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"The Westing Game" Activities and Lesson Plans
You can use a novel, such as "The Westing Game", to teach reading concepts and skills in a way that keeps students interested.
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I Oppose!--Counter-argument/Classifying
Students create an effective classification and counter argument. In this counter-argument lesson, students decide upon a label for at least three types of people and then describe their groups. Students describe three types of people...
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"my Dear Little Boys..." Using Wwii Primary Documents: a Letter Home From the War
Students read letters written by soldiers during World War II in order to analyze the soldier's feelings about the war. They explain how these primary sources teach appreciation for the World War II soldier's experiences.